Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
GOP Congressman Paul Ryan is officially in the running for the Speaker’s gavel, and he is building up his team already. Should he win, Ryan has picked longtime lobbyist David Hoppe to be his chief of staff.
The Washington Examiner reports:
K Street veteran David Hoppe will serve as Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan’s right-hand man should he replace outgoing Speaker of the House John Boehner, Ryan announced Sunday. Like Ryan, Hoppe hails from Wisconsin and is of genuine conservative convictions. He previously served as vice president of the Heritage Foundation and as chief of staff to the late New York Congressman Jack Kemp, who Ryan’s credited as his leading political mentor.
“Dave has been a foot soldier in the conservative movement, and he is a good friend,” Ryan reportedly said in a statement Sunday. “His decades of experience fighting for the cause and his passionate commitment to conservative principles are just what I’m looking for to create a new kind of speakership.”
A “principled lobbyist” kind of sounds like an oxymoron to me, but his experience at the Heritage Foundation and Empower America are good signs.
Some conservative members of the Freedom Caucus are warming up to the idea of a Ryan speakership. According to the Washington Post:
…Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.) — counts himself among the roughly 70 percent of Freedom Caucus members who say they are willing to support Ryan.
“When they make decisions, it’s not in haste,” Brat said of the caucus. “And so I would ask the American people: Hold your fire. Wait till you see exactly what our group is doing, and I think you’ll see that it’s coherent, it makes sense.”
I guess we will have to wait and see.
